Accept policies
It is generally well understood by parents that under the Education Act 2002 (section 175/157), schools must “make arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children”.
What is less well known, is that there is no legal requirement for Out Of School Settings (a dance school is considered to be one of these) to have safeguarding policies and proceedures in place.
At Colours of Dance, we are committed to best practise in all areas of our school, and therefore, we benchmark ourselves against the requirements of the Local Authority Safeguarding proceedures for schools and the requirements of the Education Act 2002.
To demonstrate this, we make the statements below and have also signed up to the voluntary code of practise published by the Department for Education in October 2020. This document may be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-out-of-school-settings-code-of-practice
An NSPCC Briefing document has been produced to provide a less wordy set of highlights to complement the government guidelines, produced in January 2022. This may be found here: https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/media/3082/keeping-children-safe-during-community-activities-after-school-clubs-tuition-caspar-briefing.pd
Our Principal is a founder member of working group, Safer Dance, dedicated to ensuring that children are dancing in safe places and that students, parents and carers are well-informed. Safer Dance also develops educational materials to support this mission and advocates across the sector and through representation at Government All Party Working Groups.
The Principal, Imogen Knight, is the Designated Safeguarding Lead, and Kerry Walpole is Deputy. However, should anyone at all have a concern or feel worried about anything, they can raise it with any teacher or member of staff at any time, and appropriate support will offered.
We will endeavour to provide a safe and welcoming environment where children are respected and valued.
The school will therefore be alert to signs of abuse and neglect and will follow the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) procedures to ensure that children receive appropriate and effective support and protection.
Parents/carers should know that the law requires all school staff to pass on information which gives rise to a concern about a child’s welfare, including risk from neglect, physical, emotional or sexual abuse. The school should make parents/carers aware that records of welfare concerns may be kept about their child. They should be informed that school staff will seek, in general, to discuss any concerns with them including referrals to other agencies. However, in situations where the child is suspected to be at risk of harm, the law says that schools may take advice from other agencies without informing parents/carers.
In accordance with local Information Sharing protocols, we will ensure that information is shared securely and sensitively. Information will only be shared with other services where it is deemed necessary and proportionate to ensure that children and young people are safe and receive the right service.
Schools will seek advice from Social Care when they have reasonable cause to suspect a child may be suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. Occasionally, concerns are passed on which are later shown to be unfounded. Parents/carers will appreciate that the member of staff in the school with responsibility for child protection (known as the Designated Safeguarding Lead or Designated Person) was carrying out their responsibilities in accordance with the law and acting in the best interests of all children.
Under Section 3 (5) of the Children Act 1989, schools or any person who has care of a child “may….do what is reasonable in all the circumstances of the case for the purpose of safeguarding or promoting the child’s welfare”. This means that on rare occasions, a school may need to “hold” a child in school whilst Social Care and the police investigate any concerns further.
* The word ‘school’ is used throughout but this would include all educational settings e.g. Academies, Pupil Referral Units, Further Education establishments and Independent schools.
The Colours of Dance Safeguarding Policy may be read in full here: pol-cod-app3a-safeguardingpolicy.pdf, or in the Colours of Dance Office.
The Principal, Imogen Knight, is the Designated Safeguarding Lead, and Kerry Walpole is Deputy. However, should anyone at all have a concern or feel worried about anything, they can raise it with any teacher or member of staff at any time, and appropriate support will offered.
The Colours of Dance Safeguarding Policy is closely aligned with our Health & Safety Policy, and forms part of our whole school protective ethos. To see the Health and Safety Policy in Full, click pol-cod-app4-health-safetypolicy.pdf
If you have a few moments, we'd love to know why you rated us as you did. You don't have to provide any personal information. In addition to any information you submit on this form we will capture and store the type browser you're using. Please view our Privacy Policy for more information.
Any feedback that looks fake will be invalidated automatically.
